Hallr Þórarinsson breiðmaga (Hbreiðm)

Hallr (Hbreiðm), son of a certain Þórarinn breiðmagi ‘Broad-belly’, is said in Orkn to have arrived in Orkney on an Icel. ship (ÍF34, 182). Neither father nor son is mentioned elsewhere, though it has been speculated that they were related to Ari Þorgilsson’s foster-father Hallr Þórarinsson of Haukadalur, or that they belonged to the Síðumenn, one of whom was called breiðmagi, and who were related to the jarls of Orkney (Hl 1941, 5, 143). Soon after this episode, Orkn says that Hallr and Rǫgnvaldr composed Háttalykill (RvHbreiðm HlIII) together (ÍF 34, 185).

context: Arrived
in Orkney, Hallr stayed on North Ronaldsay
at first, but not enjoying himself there he asked his host Þorsteinn Rǫgnuson to
help get him a place at Rǫgnvaldr’s court. The st. is spoken by Hallr
on their return to North Ronaldsay in
response to a question from Þorsteinn’s mother Ragna about their journey.

notes: Ragna subsequently persuaded Rǫgnvaldr to accept Hallr by wearing an extraordinary headdress (see Rv Lv 6), and later Rǫgnvaldr and Hallr composed Háttalykill (RvHbreiðm HlIII) together. — Like the otherwise unrelated Árm Lv 3, this st. is in the hexasyllabic variant of in minzta runhenda (SnSt Ht 88III, SnE 1999, 35-6). RvHbreiðm Hl 21III appears to be in the same metre; there are several other examples of runhent metre in that poem, though not all composed in hexasyllabic ll.